Did you make a New Years resolution Come clean Did you If so Im sad to say youre probably going to fail In fact University of Scranton research suggests that just 9 of people achieve their New Years goals Sure these folks probably didnt make SMART goals meaning they were doomed for failure from the start But are SMART goals enough I dont think so In fact at least for me Ive pretty much stopped making big grandiose goals Instead Ive turned my attention to one thing virtuous habit formation As one example a few years ago I realized I was a heart attack waiting to happen Heck watch some old Gemba Academy videos like this one and youll see I was um a little heavier And check out Paul in that video he was carrying a few more pounds back then as well But heres the thing I didnt make any big claims like This year Im going to lose weight Instead I asked a good friend and fellow CrossFitter if hed help me with a workout and clean eating plan And now as I look back I realize the key to my success was simple I stopped practicing bad habits namely drinking soda and eating fast food several times a week and I started practicing good habits like working out consistently and eating clean The other thing I did was start slow My buddy didnt have me go all crazy with all CrossFit has to offer right away Instead I did short 3 to 5 minute workouts 5 days per week I was learning to form the habit of exercising So heres the thing Its OK to have long range goals But dont obsess over them Instead obsess about what habits need to change and or be formed Once youve identified a few get to work But start slowly If you want to run a marathon but havent run in years go for a 3 minute jog this afternoon Then add 30 seconds every day for a few weeks taking some rest to recover as needed Slowly but surely youll get to where you want to be since youll be focused on that next 30 second milestone versus that long grueling 262 miles